The Swan 76 Pauline af Skanör, which had just finished successfully in the ARC regatta, broke out in a fire while she was stationed at Rodney Bay Marina.
The fire broke out in the boat's forward cabin. One crew member was on board and napping in the aft cabin when he smelled smoke. He managed to get out of the boat and sounded the alarm.
The crew members returned to the boat to try to put out the fire. They used the ten fire extinguishers on board the Pauline af Skanör and an additional 7-8 from nearby boats. « It seemed like they stopped the fire, but then it broke out again», said one of the Pauline af Skanör crew members.
Other members of the ARC team, including Scarlet Oyster skipper Ross Applebey and some of his crew helped seal the hatches and vents like «Dorado» with their clothing to stop the airflow.
The local fire brigade arrived with a diesel pump, but that didn't help with the fire either. The crew of a superyacht moored a few pontoons away from Pauline af Skanör were able to pull a large diameter fire hose inside. The superyacht's powerful onboard pumps were used to flood the interior of Swan 76 with water.
Eventually the fire was extinguished, but as you can see from the photos, it caused a lot of damage to Pauline af Skanör. Presumably the cause of the fire was a short in the wiring.
The Atlantic Rally for Cruisers is an annual transatlantic regatta for cruisers. It is one of the largest sailing events with up to 225 boats competing. In 2016, there were 212 yachts from 31 countries at the start of the ARC. The famous racing maxi yacht Rambler 88 took part in the rally.
The Rambler 88 set a new record for the 2,700-mile distance of the race. The yacht managed to cross the Atlantic in 8 days 6 hours and 29 minutes, an hour and ten minutes faster than the previous record set by Team Brunel last year.
The crew of the Rambler 88 took advantage of the low pressure front that formed in the mid-Atlantic shortly after the start of the regatta and chose the northernmost route, managing to shorten the distance considerably. The boat traveled 270 miles less than Team Brunel, which was the deciding factor in her victory.
